The worsening of Cadmium (Cd) pollution has intensified the urban ecological environment deterioration in the world. Purifying contaminated environment using the tall, colored-leaf woody plants has been proved as an aesthetically pleasing approach. However, the effects of Cd stress on colored-leaf woody plants have been little reported. Present hydroponic experiments were carried out to study the physiological and related anthocyanin biosynthesis genes responses to Cd stress in ‘‘Quanhong Poplar’’ plants. The experiments consisted of four Cd levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 lM). Leaves were sampled at 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 days after the first treatment for detection of related enzyme activities and genes expression. The results showed that the plants treated with 100 or 150 lM Cd presented obvious toxicity symptom, i.e. the inhibition of growth and the decrease of chlorophyll and anthocyanin contents. However, plants growth was enhanced and the synthesis of chlorophyll, anthocyanin were promoted when the plants were subject to 50 lM Cd stress. Furthermore, the activities of relative enzymes as well as their genes expression were induced, which indicated that low concentration of Cd induced the anthocyanin accumulation in ‘‘Quanhong Poplar’’ plants, which suggested that using ‘‘Quanhong Poplar’’ to purify contaminated environment would be an aesthetically pleasing approach, which would not only remediate contaminated environments but also bring landscape effects.